Every day, in good or bad weather, large and small ships passed through a narrow waterway along a rocky coastal landscape. The old lighthouse guided their way, ensuring visibility even at night and during heavy storms.
Jeffrey the Seagull loved spending his time at the beach. There, he watched the ships come and go, dreaming of the adventures of the seafarers.
One day, as he was eating a lugworm, Jeffrey was startled from his daydream by loud honking.
He flew towards the harbor where he could see many large ships crowding in the narrow waterway. It was pure chaos!
Jeffrey scratched his head with his wing. No one knew the harbor as well as he did, and there had never been such chaos here. After all, the lighthouse always helped bring the ships safely into the harbor.
Then it became clear to him. The light in the lighthouse must not be working!
Bad weather was forecast for that afternoon and the next few days. Jeffrey watched as a thick fog rolled in over the harbor and rain started to pour. The large ships were dangerously close to shore and each other as they now also struggled to see.
Jeffrey thought about how he could help. He had an idea. He grabbed a small lantern and tied it around his neck. Then he flew into the harbor.
The waves were getting bigger and Jeffrey could barely see a beak’s length ahead of him. But he was not afraid. He knew he was the only one who could help now. No one had studied the lighthouse signals for as long or as closely as he had.
As the honking grew louder and the smell of engine oil grew stronger, Jeffrey knew that he had reached the first ship.
He saw a large, red wall looming in front of him. He had never been this close to a ship before. He changed course and flew upward.
He landed on the ship’s railing to get his bearings. It was rocking terribly and the storm was so strong that he had to cling to the railing so that he wasn’t blown away.
Carefully, he waddled around on the rusted iron bar. He wanted to see where the front of the ship was. Finally, he turned on his lantern and flew up to the bridge.
The beam of light made its way through the thick fog. His feathers were wet and heavy, but he didn’t mind. Jeffrey liked the stormy sea.
When he saw a large pane of glass in front of him, he knew he had found where the captain of the ship usually sits. Captains steered these huge steel blocks through the ocean using lighthouses for orientation.
Jeffrey moved his lantern up and down when he saw an old, bearded man with a blue cap peering through the thick glass pane. He wondered how long this captain had been on this ship.
The captain saw Jeffrey and looked quite astonished. He pinched himself to make sure that he had not fallen asleep and started dreaming about a seagull with a lantern around its neck.
But it seemed to be real. Ahead of him, a soaking wet seagull was flying up and down, eagerly swinging a yellow lantern toward the west.
“Is that bird really trying to show me the way?” the captain asked his officer.
The latter looked at him strangely and replied, “This seagull may be the only creature that can get us out of this storm alive.”
Jeffrey was getting tired. His wings grew heavy as the storm raged on.
“What are they waiting for?” he thought. “I can’t fly in place for much longer!”
Suddenly the ship honked and the engine grew louder. It hummed and rattled and a large black cloud enveloped Jeffrey.
No longer able to see, he flew up into the sky as fast as he could. From there he could see the shadow of the ship as it changed course towards the west.
“Just in time,” thought Jeffrey, watching the ship narrowly avoid a big sharp rock.
But there was no time to rest. There were still many ships waiting for Jeffrey’s help that day.
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